{"id":44796,"date":"2011-04-01T11:36:24","date_gmt":"2011-04-01T09:36:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/?p=44796"},"modified":"2025-10-21T23:05:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T21:05:16","slug":"the-aramaic-languages-by-father-yakup-aydin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sorosoro.org\/en\/2011\/04\/the-aramaic-languages-by-father-yakup-aydin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Aramaic languages, by Father Yakup Aydin"},"content":{"rendered":"

We\u2019re in France, in the outskirts of Paris\u2026 just so we can fly out straight to Mesopotamia<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re joined by Father Yakup Aydin<\/strong>, priest of the Syriac Orthodox church of Antakya in France. His mother language is Toroyo, a languages descending from Aramaic, said to be the language of Christ.<\/p>\n

Taking a stroll into distant past. Aramaic is a Semitic language officially recognized over 2,500 years ago! In the 7th<\/strong> century<\/strong> B.C.<\/strong> Aramaic becomes the administrative language of the Neo-Assyrian Empire followed by the Neo-Babylonian and Persian Empires, and thus the common language of the Middle East<\/strong>. Aramaic already included several dialects prior to the Christian era. One of these was the language Jesus Christ preached in.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, the remaining of what has become a group of languages are Syriac<\/strong>, the classical and liturgical variation<\/strong> (such as Latin for Romance languages); Sureth<\/strong>, spoken in Iraq (and a few villages of North-East Syria) and in Hakkari (South-East Turkey); Toroyo<\/strong>, in southeastern Turkey, the language of Ma\u2019loula<\/strong>, spoken by Greek Melkite Christians and even some Muslims in villages around Damascus; and Mandaic<\/strong>, severely endangered.<\/p>\n

Father Aydin\u2019s language, Toroyo, still gathers around 50,000 speakers living between the Tur-Abdin (Mountain of the Servants) region in Turkey, the city of Qamishli in Syria, and a diaspora mostly settled in northern Europe. In France, some of them live near Paris<\/strong>, in Montfermeil and its surroundings. The near 500 of them all arrived in the 70s and 80s.<\/p>\n

Father Aydin tells us here about this community who prays in his church every week, and continues to speak his language everyday.<\/p>\n

Special thanks to Jean-Claude Luyat<\/strong> for his footage shot in Turkey, and to Jean Sibille<\/strong>, Alain Desreumaux<\/strong>, and Claude Haberer<\/strong> for the all the valuable information they have provided.<\/p>\n

More on Aramaic languages<\/a><\/p>\n

More on Sureth<\/a><\/p>\n

More on Turoyo<\/a><\/p>\n

More on Modern Mandaic<\/a><\/p>\n

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Image & sound France<\/span>: Baptiste Etchegaray<\/p>\n

Image & sound Turkey: <\/span>Jean-Claude Luyat<\/p>\n

Editing<\/span>: Caroline Laurent<\/p>\n